Grating for a swimming pool

ABSTRACT

A grate construction for a swimming pool placed at a top edge of the pool at its water level. The grate consists of a wet deck edging profile having a hollow grate bar at its forward edge. A finger grip groove follows the hollow grate inwardly, that is, away from the edge of the water further inwardly there is a flat section which is fastened to the concrete from which the pool is constructed. The flat section is being fastened to the concrete by way of a lag screw. Also, the flat section has two upstanding hook ribs thereon. Another hollow grate bar has at its bottom side two depending hook ribs thereon. The upstanding hook ribs and the depending hook ribs, when pressed together, will fasten the another hollow grate bar to the flat extension. A connector element will fasten two longitudinal grate bars together to extend its length. The material of the connector element has a different coefficient of expanding or retracting than the material of the grate bars to assure a water tight connection between adjacent structures.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The inventive concept pertains to swimming pool constructions,particularly it is directed to the overflow gutter concept. The overflow concept is increasingly being used in the United States and othercountries. This overflow concept is not only being used in largeswimming competition pools but also in leisure and residential pools.The perimeter overflow system is often called, deck level, overflow orwet deck. This type of construction involves a gutter which is locatedaround the whole perimeter of the pool and placed at the deck level ofthe pool so that water can flow into the gutter and a grating covers thegutter opening which grating is placed at the deck level. The gratinghas to be rigid and strong enough to accommodate foot traffic near theedge of the pool.

Known gratings have connecting stays that run perpendicular to the poolwall. They are extruded, are somewhat flexible and can handle a radiusin a pool that has curves therein. Straight grates straight grates arepreferred in pools because they are parallel to the edge of the poolhave a tendency the flow of water over the grate because the parallelpresent an obstacle to the water flow. Gratings are normally 12 inchesand observations have shown that in this type of grate, the watertravels at most over no more than 3 gaps. This way the water disappearsquickly into the gutter below the grating resulting in a much dryer deckand resulting in less falls when bare feet move over the deck.Applicant's prior U.S. Pat. No. 6,968,665 is such a disclosure usinggrating bars that run parallel to the wall of the pool. However, it hasbeen found that the disclosed construction is rather cumbersome and timeconsuming.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention simplifies construction of the pool grate to some greatextent in that the pool grating and elements thereof have been extrudedand are fastened to the pool side edge of the deck. As explained in theprior Patent, the installation of the grate improves the water flow overthe grate while the deck surrounding the pool remains much dryer. Thenose of the grating facing the pool has a finger grip groove providedtherein which groove runs the full perimeter of the pool and aids thepersons in the pool to quickly grab a hold of the deck if so desired.

FIG. 1 shows a rectangular pool including the top edge of the pool;

FIG. 2 is a cross section through the grate installed on the top edge;

FIG. 3 is an exploded view of FIG. 2 prior to installation;

FIG. 4 is a connecting piece to connect various length of elementstogether.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 illustrates a rectangular in ground swimming pool 1 including thetop edge 2 whereupon the pool grating will be installed.

FIG. 2 shows the pool grating after it has been installed on top of edge2 of the pool 1. The basic pool 1 is being constructed of concrete C₁and has a liner of cement C on top and the pool side of the concrete C₁to enable various items to be installed or attached thereto such as tile3 being installed on its pool side surface. There is a drainage gutterplaced into the C₁ somewhat near the top edge of the front edge of thedeck. Only the pool side wall of the gutter is shown at 26. On top ofthe deck is installed a wet deck edging profile 4 which at its pool sideedge has a downwardly extending overlap 4 a, overlapping the top edge ofthe tile 4. The wet deck edging profile is hollow and has at its topthereof embedded ribs or web imprints 6 which altogether form aslip-proof surface. Adjacent to but just interior from the edge of 6 isa longitudinal recess 5 which will act is a finger grip groove for anyswimmer in the pool. This is considered to be quite a safety feature.The wet deck edging profile continues inwardly away from its edge in aflat manner and has upstanding hook ribs 8 thereon with the hook partsfacing outwardly. A longitudinal hollow grate bar 7 is placed over theflat area of the wet deck profile and has downwardly extending hookparts 9 thereon with the hooks facing inwardly. The reason for theoutwardly 8 and inwardly 9 facing hooks is that the hollow grate may besnap-fitted onto the flat area of the wet deck edging profile. The wetdeck edging profile 4 with its flat area may be fastened to the top ofthe cement C by way of a screw element. This is accomplished by way of aplastic sleeve 10 being embedded in both the concrete C₁ and the cementC at a predetermined location. A lag screw 11 is driven into the sleeve10. The lag screw 1 has a head 12 with a washer 13 placed thereunder.The screw as well as the washer should be made of rust-proof material,such as stainless steel. Prior to placing the wet deck edging profile 4onto the top of the cement C, strips of Sikaflex beds 14 and 15 shouldbe placed under and at each end of the wet deck edging profile 4 towater proof and cushion the underside of the wet bed edging profile.Just past and inwardly of the edge of the wet deck edging profile 4there is placed a grate consisting of a multiple of grate bars 6 a and 6b and more. The first grate bar 6 a is placed right at the edge of thedrainage gutter. The inside wall is shown at 26. The grate bars 6 a, 6 band more are connected to each in a lateral manner by connector bars 25,25 ₁ etc. to form a complete grate that will span the gutter (only theright side is shown at 26). The tops of the grate bars 6 a, 6 b and 7have ribs thereon to prevent slipping because of wet feet.

FIG. 3 is an exploded view of FIG. 1 and no new call outs have beenused. It is believed that this FIG. 3 can be fully understood whencompared with FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 illustrates a connection element 25 that will connectlongitudinal wet deck edging profiles 4 together to accommodate the fulllength of the pool. It is important that the hollow interiors 16 and 17of the grate bars 6 and 7 will be devoid of water therein because anyaccidental water therein will attain a foul smell over any period oftime. The connector element 25 is molded from a plastic material havinga composition Ethylene-Propylene-Diene-Terpolymer (EPDT). Using thismaterial assures a water-proof connection because the material reacts totemperature changes. When there is a temperature change in the gratebars, the connector bars will also change but to a somewhat greaterextent whereby the integrity of the leak-proof connection will stayintact. The connector element 25 has a center piece 18 which conformsexactly to the shape of the wet deck edging profile. The connectorelement has on both sides in the front grip extensions 19 and 20 and onthe rear side grip extensions 21 and 22. The grip extensions 19 and 20will be pressed into the hollow 16 of the forward grate bar and the gripextensions 21 and 22 will be pressed into the hollow 17 when assemblingtwo longitudinal wet deck edging profiles together. This way, any lengthof pool can be accommodated.

It can now be seen that the above described pool construction improvesthe accuracy of the installation. The construction improves the waterflow over the grate while the deck surrounding the pool remains muchdryer while improving the safety aspect of the users of the pool,especially, with the presence of the finger gripping groove along theedge of the pool. The grate bars disclosed above can easily be extrudedbecause they are made of a plastic material such as PVC.

1. A grating for a swimming pool constructed of concrete, The gratingincludes a wet deck edging profile located at a front of said gratingfacing the pool and at a same height as the level of water in said pool,a hollow grate bar is located at said water level, a finger grip grooveis located next to said hollow grate bar in an interior orientation awayfrom said water, said wet deck edging profile continues to extent towardsaid interior in a flat manner to thereby form a flat extension, a meansfor fastening is placed through said flat extension and into saidconcrete, another hollow grate bar is placed over said flat extensionand fastened thereto.
 2. The grating of claim 1, wherein said means forfastening is a lag screw driven into said concrete.
 3. The grating ofclaim 1, wherein said flat extension has upstanding hooks thereon facingin one direction and said another hollow extension has hooks on itsbottom side facing in another direction, whereby, when said hooks aresnap-fitted into each other, the another hollow grate bar will befastened to said flat extension.
 4. The grating of claim 1, including adrainage gutter located in said concrete at an interior direction fromsaid wet deck edging profile.
 5. The grating of claim 4 including agrating spanning said gutter, said grating having a multiple of gratebars and a multiple of connector bars connecting said grate barstogether to form a grid.
 6. The grating of claim 1 including a connectorelement connecting longitudinal grate bars together to extend theirlengths.
 7. The grating of claim 6, wherein said connector elementconsists of a central plate having the same top profile as that of saidwet deck edging profile.
 8. The grating of claim 7, said central platehaving grip extension on either side to be pressed into said hollows ofsaid grate bars.
 9. The grating of claim 6, wherein the material of saidconnector element has a different coefficient of expansion or retractionwhen subjected to temperature changes when compared to the material ofthe wet deck edging profile.
 10. The grating of claim 1, wherein allsurfaces of said grating bars have a friction increasing profilethereon.